Pretty Man Episode 5: Everything's Coming up Socks!

Episode 5
This episode has everything finally turning in Team Sock's favor as well as so many cute moments of jealousy that even the harshest fans of this OTP cant do anything but smile.  So put on a nice warm pair of socks and enjoy episode 5's hijinks with me.

So my Kdrama bestie Angela has pointed out that I have never discussed a very important aspect of Pretty Man with you all.  So I promised to alleviate that error right away on this weeks blog post.

What is up with the evil wicked witch's face? 
She looks like she got the all included plastic surgery face lift combo pack.  If there is ever the need for a character to look like a mannequin she has got the part.

Its weird since you look at her and realize that she should be pretty but I think the lack of movement in her facial expressions turns it from pretty to unnatural.  Kind of sad since I think that actresses that get this look due to plastic surgery are often turned into the 2nd leads because the just cant express as much anymore.  Get a clue actresses plastic does not equal beautiful.  But it does make for a good villainous because it adds that extra tad of "just wrong" to the character.
And right off in episode 5 we see her being evil.  Going to Mattai's house with the sob story of her daughter (at first I was not sure if she was sincere or not) tugging at the poor abandoned boys heartstrings.  He of course is all that is supportive (happily in a complete non sexual way) and pats her on the back letting her know it will all work out.  And then as she leaves she takes out her compact and her evil plastic smile reappears as she congratulates herself on having Mattai right where she wants him.

I know that they are trying to show us that we should have some sympathy for her because she was kicked out of her marriage and away from her daughter by the evil queen. But when you use your child to further your own plans you totally lose any sympathy points.  Sorry show but although I suspect you are going to try and redeem her at some point (especially since this is based on a Japanese story and they love the whole redemption thing) I am not going to like her.

At the same time all this is happening, poor Bo Tong goes home and does what any girl does when she finds her "man" in the clutches of a plastic witch........  She dons her favorite fuzzy ducky sweater and gets rip roaring drunk.  Can I just say that she is still adorable drunk and I would love to see her so further on in the drama because a drunk Bo Tong is a sassy loud Bo Tong.  And when her mother comes across her with lots of complaints and head slapping Bo Tong breaks and yells that she is moving out because her new job comes with room and board.   WHAT???????

And when her mom wakes her hungover daughter the next morning and is ready to kick her out of the house, Bo Tong must call David and official take him up on his housing offer.  It seems that in passing super cutie Choi David had suggested that Bo Tong move into his house so she does not have to commute so far.  And so team sock becomes an actually company and his house (remember he is living in a tent in the yard) becomes the companies "dormitory".  I love how this show came up with such a cute way to make them all closer together (not to mention create a situation that is truly jealous worthy for a certain pretty guy who is unaware he loves his crazy stalker).  Also how cute is David when he is trying to assure her that he loves living in his tent "Glamping in all four seasons is wonderful" and then when she reply's that she is so envious and actually means it.  These two were destined to be besties.

The Obstacles
But everything is not all flowers and sausages for team sock.  They still are minus a time slot at the home shopping network and also are lacking a middleman to back their company.  Pretty much all they do have is 3 workers and a lot of hutzpah.  So David starts work on promoting the cleaning sock idea to his boss.  However he does not get to far when it comes out that they are minus all of the paperwork.

So instead they decide that someone is going to have to "come across" his boss accidentally and convince him that they are a good bet.  And since his boss leaves for a scheduled nail appointment ever week Mattai is going to have to go to extra lengths to get what he wants (but more on that later since I am trying to stay somewhat chronological this week).

So Team sock meets to discuss how to overcome all of the problems but upon learning that his girl Friday Bo Tong has moved in with David, poor Mattai has problems focusing on the problem in hand.  To say that he is having problems having Bo Tong focus on anything other then him is an understatement and we have some of the cutest jealous (but does not know he is jealous) moments full of snarky jabs, cranky looks, and dictator style orders that she must move back home at once. 
 Bo Tong, noticing that he is acting so unlike his usual cool and distant self wonders if he is jealous?  And if him being bossy is his shy way of letting her know. BWHAHAHA.

In a huff of frustration and crankiness our pretty hero changes gears and goes to talk with the electric fairy who, having discovered that she has feelings for him, is going to let him in on her super secret for reading peoples hearts.  She tells him about how growing up with parents that could not speak nor hear she always had to anticipate their needs.  Not only that but she had to watch people's reactions to her parents and make sure that they treated them with respect.  By doing this she started learning people's "buttons".  Buttons being the things that people wanted kept hidden, their weaknesses that allowed others to influence them.  Find their button and you can make a person do what you want them to do.

Mattai takes this all in and sits, and sits, and sits, trying to understand this concept.  He looks at a lamp, sees a button, pushes it on and off and then on again, and then loses his serious expression and yells that he just does not get it.  LOL.  Then he promptly becomes distracted trying to figure out if Bo Tong had gone back "with that guy" or not and whether he should call her.  HAHAHA  His budding jealousy is adorable.

 I truly love how they don't make him automatically bright.  He definitely has to actually work at figuring this all out.  And I personally think that it is all the more rewarding when he does finally get it since it is not just handed to him.  Because he does have to work for his answers I more readily believe the change in his personality, from the guy who originally wanted everything handed to him to the slightly deeper man he is in episode 5.

It just so happens that our Heroine has NOT moved out of her cushy cheep new apartment and when she tells this to Mattai he blows up saying that he is going to tell her mom about her and "this thief" and when she snaps back at him for being a tool he is totally shocked.  Even though she backs down real fast he huffily cuts off the phone call telling her he is going to get coffee.

I love that our cute crazy girl is starting to get a little cranky around the edges with her Oppa.  Good for you.  Let your independent crazy flag fly and make him suffer a little.  Will serve him right and make him realize he loves you all the faster.

Of course one conversation does not unmake a 10 year stalker and she is instantly on her phone googling where hot pretty boys go to get coffee so she can stalk down oppa Mattai and tell him about his "meeting" with David's boss.
 Mattai is in fact meeting with the electric fairy for lessons since he cant seem to wrap his mind around the whole "Button" metaphor.  She points to various people around the cafe and has him observe them.  Observation is key.........Watch them, they all have buttons that they are trying to hide whether it is that they like someone, are stressed over school, or are trying to become rich.  He is just starting to get it when a very loud screech of "oppa" fills the room.  Seems Bo Tong has indeed hunted him down and is not happy to find him on a date when they have socks to sell.  The Electric Fairy just stares at her and mentally just sees a whole plethora of buttons.

I find it interesting in what Electric Fiary sees as buttons because of her clothes and jealous behavior are also the things that make Bo Tong so tough and tenacious.  And although Bo Tong does look like a total mess and full of flaws, inside she is the most stable and has the best self esteem out of all the shows characters.  She truly understands herself.

After chasing off the electric fairy Bo Tong ignores Mattai's sputtering and instead tells him that he has an appointment to hunt down David's boss.  Just so happens that David's boss is obsessed with his nails and goes to get a manicure once a week.  So poor Mattai takes one for team sock and goes into this den of female hormones.  I really do feel for the guy because women really sexual harass him a lot.  His manicurist even goes to the point of caressing his hands and talking about his "Virgin" cuticles HAHAHAHA.  And when he sees David's boss and makes the assumption that he is gay (because of his eccentric personality) he pulls up his big boy pants and decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and play gay and seduce the boss.

Unfortunately (although very very very very funny) plan seduce the boss crashes and bursts into flames, when Mattai is turned down cold.  Which is so sad since he massaged the cream into that guys hand like a pro.  Brooding at home over his lack of success Mattai's gold digger wannabe friend is complaining about how he has no where to live and gives Mattai a brilliant idea.

 Dragging wannabe (don't care enough to learn his name yet) to David's house he announces that wannabe is going to be joining team sock.  Everyone including wannabe stares at him in surprise and he also announces that wannabe will be moving in post haste.  Because it would look creepy if only female employees were allowed to live in the "dorms of team sock" BWAHAHAHAHA....  Very satisfied with himself for saving Bo Tong from any hanky panky coming from David, his ego is totally bruised (for about 3 seconds) when David starts talking about the creepy guy who hit on his boss at the Nail Salon hehehe and the confrontation ends with a stalemate.

I love how his jealousy is helping add people to team sock to alleviate the closeness between David and Bo Tong.  I have high hopes for more hijinks and log live the Team Sock Dormitory (only thing that could make it better is Mattai moving in at some point).

Totally falling for Mattai, our Electric Fairy continues to help him in his sock quest.  When he explains how he crashed and burned when he tried to push this guys buttons, she just nodded wisely.  Pushing buttons is a very delicate thing, since most people want to keep their buttons hidden. He asks if she sees his button and she nods and says that if she pushed it she could get him to kiss her right now.  He just smiles quizzically probably wondering what his button is.  She picks up the phone and talks to a women named Kim In Joong.  She tells her that she sees a bundle of white socks in her future and when they arrive she should jump on the opportunity since it would be beneficial for her.  Mattai smiles widely as she puts down the phone, shifts closer and gives her a .....................  nose kiss???  While super cute, not really what the fairy had probably been hoping for.
I love that his button involves the socks and that she can get kissed if she pushes his sock button.

Girl # 3

The wicked witch (I had been enjoying the lack of the WW so much in this episode) tells Mattai that he has found Women #3 (in case you had forgotten there are 10 women he must conquer to achieve his rightful place in his dads kingdom).  #3 is Kim In Joong the Queen of connections, since he is going to need to learn how to make connections in his fight against the Evil Queen.

Discussing his new scheme over with Bo Tong (again seems like they are slowly becoming partners rather then master and uber low stalker on the totem pole lackey.)  He tells her to go moonlighting and to be sure and mention his socks and MG Home Shopping since the electric fairy had already laid the foundation for them.  She does as he says and before you can say fuzzy white socks of doom (I guess they cant really be socks of doom anymore since they are actually more of a good thing for team sock but fuzzy socks of happiness just does not have the same ring) they have a prime slot on the MG shopping network.

Success smells like a pair of cleaning socks!!!

It is do or die time and just before the broadcast David brings over a pair of socks and asks Bo Tong to breath on them since they will hold the breath of success and he will keep them as a memento.  A jealous Mattai quickly breaths on them first and slaps them back into David's hand with a glare.  Mattai grabs Bo Tong away leaving a totally devastated David behind.

I love how sad David is that his plan to have a love memento did not work and I also love how Mattai shows his jealousy in the littlest ways since he is completely unaware he is doing it.

With everyone super nervous at the beginning the group slowly starts to smile as more and more cleaning socks are sold.  However Bo Tong starts to cry instead because she was so worried that things would go bad for her oppa and she is relieved.  He smiles pats her shoulder and tells her not to worry and if they exceed a hundred million won then he will let her................. kiss him?  Have dinner with him?  Buy her a golden designer handbag? ..........  Nope she gets the honor of taking ten pictures of him.  OH MY WORD HAHAHAHAHA   

He says it in a way that makes it seem like he might be joking......... oh please kdrama gods, please let him be joking and not that shallow. 

As the socks start to sell out Mattai leaves the main showroom to take a deep breath of reief where no one can see him.  He says to himself "earning money, I didnt know it felt like this.  This must be why people live their lives so diligently".  Then he even thanks Bo Tong in his head for helping him achieve this.........................awwwwwwww..........  and then he ruins the tender moment by saying, "Yes I will give you ten photos of myself" and walks back in smiling happily.

Well two steps forward and one giant narcissist leap back still leaves us slightly ahead on our quest to make Mattai into a real boy and not just a pretty one.

And as he returns from the hall he finally sees someone's button.  Just so happens it is David Choi's and it is a great big huge one that has Kim Bo Tong written all over it!!!  Oh please let him start to realize he is jealous and actually start to be pulled toward her romantically.  I have loved their sweet friendship in all its weird glory, but I am ready for some heated hubba hubba romance between our two leads.  Or knowing how slow it is for Mattai to get concepts, I at least want some sweaty palms and awkward skinship.  Please make it happen kdrama gods..... pretty pretty please.

I really love all of the jealousy and competition mixed in with the forward movement of the sock story line.  Also congrats to the writers on doing a fairly competent job on writing a storyline that all depends on the selling of socks.  I am sure that it is very difficult since when you think romantic sexy pretty boy comedy you don't automatically associate socks with any of that.  They have done wonders on keeping a forward movement on the plot as well as keeping me liking all three members of the love triangle.  Even Mattai for all of his narcissistic ways is a very funny and likable and slowly but surely we are seeing him act more of himself and less of the gold digger. I for one and really loving the subtle movements of his character.

Sincerely,
Kmuse